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New York Yankees' Andy Pettitte not quite Hall-worthy

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Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, who have combined for more wins than any starter-closer combo in baseball history, get together at spring training in 2010. Months earlier, Pettitte hoisted the World Series championship trophy. Friday, he pondered a question at his retirement news conference. Photo below, Pettitte is all smiles holding then 2-year-old son Josh after the 1996 ALCS clinching win. Josh will be pitching for Baylor University in the spring.
(Associated Press)

As great as Andy Pettitte has been across this span of time for the Yankees, the quiet left-hander with the enormous postseason resume is not a Hall of Famer.

That shouldn’t detract for a minute the joy he’s delivered to fans from the beginning, in 1995, when he showed up in New York a green kid, but with a competitive edge you could almost taste on game day.

The 41-year-old is a guy, even now, who you’d pay to see pitch a game, especially one with something big riding on the outcome.

And that’s how the 18-year big-leaguer with the 255-152 lifetime record would like to be remembered.

“As someone who took the ball every fifth day and gave it everything I’ve got,” Pettitte said when asked what he wished his legacy to be. “That whenever I was here, I was all-in.”

And he deserves that level of respect. Pettitte’s earned it, even now as the most consistent pitcher on the current Yankees staff.

We all know the numbers: Most postseason victories in the history of the game at 19, most wins, starts and strikeouts among active pitchers, 103 more victories than defeats.

POISE AND GRIT

The word poise comes to mind when you’re talking about Andy Pettitte.

And grit.

He was a stabilizing influence in the clubhouse, quiet and thoughtful. Also easy on the media, someone who actually listened to an interviewer’s question, considered it, and answered. There’s not a lot of that in baseball’s post-game clusters.

But he’s not a Hall of Famer.

Close, maybe, like former teammates David Cone, Mike Mussina and David Wells; like the old Yankees broadcaster Jim Kaat; and another Bronx left-hander of a different time, Tommy John.

Pettitte is probably even better than a small group of pitchers already in Cooperstown.

But, still, he’s not quite good enough.

“Never considered myself one,” he’s said in the past of his Hall of Fame worthiness.

Yesterday, he qualified that remark a little bit, talking about how he’s “honored” when someone else brings up the possibility.

Then he added, “I don’t think about the Hall of Fame unless someone asks me. I just don’t. Do I feel like I’ve dominated this sport as a pitcher? No, I absolutely don’t. I feel like every start was a grind, truthfully.

“I’m not worried about it,” Pettitte added of the Hall of Fame issue.

There’s no reason to doubt his sincerity on the issue.

“When I think of dominance, I think of our closer,” he smiled, referencing the great Mariano Rivera. “And guys like (Derek Jeter), first ballot Hall of Famers.”

And what of the complicating factor of Pettitte and his use of PEDs?

Unfortunately for him, there’s been more discussion of that than of the ‘96 World Series, when the 24-year-old Pettitte was smoked in Game 1 against Atlanta, and came back to throw eight shutout innings on the road in a 1-0 must-have victory; more talk, too, than of the ‘09 postseason when the 37-year-old went 4-0 postseason and threw 30Ò pressure-packed innings while the Yankees were making their last championship run.

“A regret,” he calls what he describes as the “HGH incident.”

You know Pettitte means just that too.

No doubt he wished he had never gotten involved. That doesn’t mean he gets, or deserves, any sort of pass.

HAD ENOUGH

But for the sake of the discussion at hand, it simply isn’t relevant. He’s not a Hall of Famer with or without the HGH use.

As for Pettitte announcing now, in the run-up to Mariano’s big Bronx day coming up tomorrow?

That part of it was pushed on Rivera’s good friend once word began to leak, so I find no fault in that. Truth is he was only making public what most Yankees fans already sensed.

The decision was coming for awhile.

“We had a great run here,” he acknowledged yesterday. “Part of me coming back was to try and keep that going with the guys that are here now, but my run’s over.”

Pettitte, who starts Sunday at home against the Giants, and will get one more chance before the season ends, is going out the way he must have hoped: As Mr. Consistent.

Since July 2, he has allowed four earned runs or more exactly twice in 14 starts.

And he’s held opponents to two runs or fewer in six of his last eight games.

That’s remarkable for a man his age with well over 3,000 innings on his arm.

But that’s Pettitte: Really extraordinary right to the end, just not a Hall of Famer.